Woodburn, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodburn, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Woodburn lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Woodburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Woodburn — the short answer
Woodburn, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 404 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 404 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Woodburn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodburn's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodburn
Each reading below is measured for Woodburn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodburn runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWoodburn sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Woodburn is in
Woodburn sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Woodburn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clarke County.
What Grows in Woodburn
Every plant below cleared Woodburn's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodburn?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Woodburn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodburn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COTTRELL & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 072N24W27ADB 1964Nitrate · 950 ft
- CLARKE COUNTY SECONDARY ROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 072N24W14CCDANitrate · 1.2 mi
- OTTAWA QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 071N24W02ADBANitrate · 2.2 mi
- SIRWA #3 (OSCEOLA)PFAS · 2.3 mi
- 072N23W29DDA 1946Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 069N26W34BBBD 1971Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- 071N23W08BAANitrate · 4.6 mi
- 073N23W31BBD 1958Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 071N24W21BDB 1966Nitrate · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodburn's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Woodburn.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Woodburn
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodburn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodburn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodburn, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Woodburn. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Woodburn
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodburn average
Your land is one point inside Woodburn
Everything above resolves to Woodburn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 404 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Woodburn Average
Woodburn Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Woodburn
- ●One soil character for all of Woodburn
- ●Frost dates read at Woodburn's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodburn's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodburn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodburn, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodburn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodburn average
How we know this about Woodburn
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Woodburn’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Woodburn
When does frost risk typically end in Woodburn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodburn typically lands around Apr 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 1.
When is the first frost in Woodburn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodburn typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodburn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodburn sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 9, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodburn?
The federal record around Woodburn shows 96 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Woodburn?
From about Sep 23 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodburn's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodburn's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Woodburn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Woodburn's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 404 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodburn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodburn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 23 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodburn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodburn's boundary and the 404 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodburn's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodburn's 404 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clarke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clarke County
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Clarke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodburn's 404 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodburn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 404 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Woodburn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaWoodburn sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.